Advertising appliance.



s. KORF. ADVERTISING APPLIANCE.

Patented Dec. 24, 1918.

2 SHEETS-SHEET I.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 15. I9I6.

KORF.' ADVERTISING APPLIANCE. APPLICATION FILED MAY 15, 1916.

Patented Dec. 24, 1918.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

VQCJQUZV SAMUEL KORE, oroIIIcAeo, HAROLD J. F NDER;

OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS,

ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR, BY MESN'E ASSIGNMENTS, '10

TRUSTEE FOR ABRAHAM D.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 24, refs.

Continuation in part of application Serial No. 40,556, filed July l9, 1915. This application filed May 15,

1916. Serial No. 97,523.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, SAMUEL KORF, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and u.se-. ful Improvements in Advertising Appliances, of which the following is a specification.

One of the salient features of this invention is the provision of a display or adver-v tising appliance which continuously exhibits a traveling advertisement, the wording of which may be very readily altered.

In its preferred embodiment, the improved structure includes a casing or housing with preferably two windows in its opposite sides through which the advertlsement is seen. Such casing contains an endless conveyer on which. is mounted a series of holders, each adapted to receive a display-element provided with a single letter or blank, whereby the complete series or group f such members COIljOlIllZlYQOIIlPIlStBS the entire traveling advertisement, which is constantly exhibited at both windows, each word or letter passing by first one window and then the next, and so on continuously. The holders are desirably skeleton-frames and the display-members wholly or m part transparent or translucent, suitable llluminating means being provided'between the stretches of the conveyer so, that the slgn will be lighted at both windows. The structure of the conveyer, the style and form of holders and their manner of attachment to the conveyer, the employment of intervendevice, and other features form parts of the present invention.

In order that those skilled 1n this art may structure with mg separating strips, the ventilation of the sprocket wheels, one of the metal .bands cooperating therewith, and the letter-or display holders mounted thereon;

Fig. 4 is a central, vertical, fragmentary sectionon an enlarged scale through an end portion of the appliance;

Fig. 5 is a cross-sectionon line 5'5 of Fig.4, the parts being viewed in the direc- -t1on indicated by the arrows; I

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary detail view showmg the manner of attaching the skeletonframe holders to the metal bands f the continuous or endless conveyer;

Fig. 7 illustrates the means for securing together the overlapped ends of the conveyer bandsyand Fig. 8 is a section on line 8-8 of Fig. 7.

The appliance includes a sheet-metal base member 10 having downturned marginal flanges 11 on which the structure rests, as is perhaps more clearly shown in Figs. 4 and 5. At each end of the appliance by means of bolts 12, 12, a frame casting 13 is adjustably" fastened to the base-plate 10, being capable of adjustment longitudinally of the device for the purpose of tightening the endless conveyer described hereinafter. The upper portions of these end members 13 are connected together longitudinally of the device by a pair of spaced angle-bars 1 1 and 15, each of which has one flange upstanding, its com anion flange being horizontal, and adjusta ly secured by screws 16, to the casting by means of slots in the latter.

At each end of the device a vertical shaft is rotatably mounted in a bearing 21 in the lower portion of the casting 13, its upper portion having a bearing at 22 (Fig. 1) in the top part of such casting. Each of these shafts near its lower end has a sprocketwheel 24*fastened to it by a set-screw 23 and at its upper portion beneath the casting the shaft has secured thereto by a set-screw 25 a similar sprocket-wheel 26. As is more clearly illustrated in Fig. 3, each of these sprocketwheels has a number of teeth 27 with outer partially-cylindrical surfaces 28, each tooth being provided centrally with an outstanding lug or supplemental tooth 29, these various teeth 27 being separated one from another by practically semi-cylindrical recesses or cavities 30.

One of these shafts 20 and its sprocketwheels are rotated by means of an electricmotor 31 substantially-centrally located. on

the base 10, the shaft of such motor having at its upper end a horizontal ventilating fan 32 and beneath the fan a small grooved pulley 33 with which a round belt 34 cooperates, such belt passing around a larger grooved pulley 35 ona sleeve 36 revoluble'on the upper end of one of the shafts 20. Pulley 35 has also fixed "to its hub a smaller grooved pulley 37 which co-acts wlth a round belt 38 taking around another pulley 39 secured to the upper end of a sleeve 40 revoluble on a fiXed screw-shaft 41, the lower-end of which is screwed into a boss on a saddle or yoke 42 supported on the channelbars 14 and 15 by means ofscrews 43, 43. In

order that this yoke or saddle may be adjustable for the tightening of the belt the holes 44 in the angle-bars, through which the screws 43 extend, are in the form of slots disposed longitudinally of such bars. Sleeve 40 at its lower portion is equipped with a smaller grooved pulley 45 the belt 46cooperating with which also passes around a considerably larger grooved pulley 4T fixed to the upper sprocket wheel 26. as by means of one or more screws 48. Obviously, these various sized pulleys and their co-acting belts constitute a speed-reducing means, whereby the motor 31 drives the sprocket-wheel 26, the shaft 20, and the companion sprocketwheel 24.

The upper pair of alined sprocket-wheels 26, 26, has associated therewith an endless phosphor-bronze band or ribbon 49, the pair of lower sprocket-wheels being equipped with a similar phosphor-bronze band 50, each of these bands being provided with a series of rectangular apertures 51, between each two of which the band is supplied with a smaller circular aperture 52, the former perforations 51 being provided for cooperation with the supplemental or secondary teeth 29 of the sprocket-wheels, as will be readily understood, the other apertures 52 being PIOX'iflQd for the purpose of attachment to the band of the skeleton-frame holders and intermediate strips hereinafter described. In order to make these conveyer bands endless, that is, to fasten their ends together, I provide bent securing wires 53 which are threaded through registering apertures 54 in the overlapped endsof the strips, as is clearly illustrated in Figs. 7 and 8.

Around the entire stretch of these endless bands they are provided with a plurality of metal, skeleton-fran'le holders 5?), each of which, as is shown in Figs. 3 and is open at the top and provided along their two upright edges and across the bottom with retaining flanges constituting sockets for the reception of the display-elements which may be readily inserted into the holders through their open tops and as readily removed therefrom. Each of these holder's is connectblack.

so that the holders or frames will have practically a pivotal mounting on the bands to facilitate their travel around thesocket wheels. At these top and bottom points each holder has ears 58 and 59 respectively bent upwardly and downwardly, that is, in opposite directions, (Fig. 5), and extended or hooked through the corresponding apertures of the metallic conveyer bands.

Between each pair of these holders an intel-mediate strip (50 of metal is fastened to the hands by means of ears or lugs 61 and 2 stuck up out of the metal of such strip and fitted in or hooked through adjacent apertures of the two metallic bands, the upper car (31 projecting downwardly and the lower ear (52 extending upwardly, as is clearly shown in Fig. 4. liecesses 30 of the sprocket-wheels permit the lugs or fingers 58. 5!), (31. and (32. to pass around the wheels without interference. The strips 0 act notv only as spacers assisting in holding the bands 4!), 50, properly separated but they also constitute means to prevent the light from passing between the adjacent displayelement holders 55 both of which overlap such strips, as is clearly illustrated.

The display elements (33, of which there is one for each holder 55 may be of any suitable form or construction, but preferably each of such members is a piece of glass shaped to fit the holder, the glass being painted black except for the single translucent letter which is displayed. These elements may be of ground glass painted black except for the letter proper, or they may be of clear glass with the letter painted white and the remainder of the element painted Obviously, the nature of these display elements is immaterial, although it is preferable that they shall be at least translucent because of the nature of the illumination to which they are subjected, as described hereinafter.

The inclosing casing has suitable perforated metal ends 64 and a similar perforated sheet-metal top or cover 65 which is so constructed as to be readily removable, whereby the sign elements may be changed with facility and despatch. The sides of the easing are composed, of suitable frames 66 equipped with glass windows 67 as shown in Fig. 5, enabling the observers to read the traveling sign from both sides of the appliance. It will be readily understood that the sign is continually traveling past both windows, each word passing back of one window and then after turning around the sprocket-wheel passes back to the opposite window.

In order that the sign may be read at night and possibly be made somewhat more conspicuous inthe day time, the device between the two stretches of the traveling con- Tveyer is equipped with a'plurality of electric lights 68, 69, 7 O and 71, which substantially evenly illuminate thefsign as a whole, the

translucent character ofthe display elements I motor is supplied with current, the endless -conveyer carrying the advertising sign composed of a plurality of individual elements conjointly or unitedly forming the advertisement, transports. such sign past both windows, so that it is observable from both sides of the device. It will also be noted that the sign may be quickly changed, since the display elements are readily removable and interchangeable. Furthermore, since each display element has on it only a single letter, character, or blank space, the owner of the sign with a suitable supply of these elements with the various letters, can compose an advertising sign of any style or wording which he may desire.

-()bviously, many wminor mechanical changes may be made in the apparatus illus: trated and described without departure from the heart and substance of the invention as defined in the appended claims, and without sacrifice of any of its substantial benefits and advantages. Or, stated somewhat differently, the invention is capable of a variety of embodiments of which the one presented is only one desirable form. This application is in part a continuation of my earlier application, Serial No. 40,556, filed July 19, 1915.

I claim: 1. In an advertising appliance of the character described, the combination of an endless'conveyer including sprocket-wheels and a pair of spaced, endless, apertured bands cooperating with said sprocket-wheels, means to actuate said conveyer, a plurality of sheet-metal skeleton-frame holders connected to said bands by means of bent-up ears on said holders engaging apertures in said bands, intermediate strips connected to said bands between said holders by means of integral lugs thereon engaging apertures in said bands, the ears of said holders and the lugs of said strips which engage the same band being bent in opposite directions, and display-elements removably accommodated in said holders, substantially as described. 2. In an advertising appliance of the character described, the combination of an end less conveyer including recessed sprocketwheels and a pair of spaced, endless, apertured bands cooperating with said sprocketwheels, means to actuate said conveyer, a plurality of open-top, sheet-metal, skeletonframe holders connected to said bands by means of bent-up ears on the holders engaging"apertures in said bands, intermediate strips connected to said bands between said holders by means of lugs thereon engaging apertures in said bands, the ears of said holders and the lugs of said strips which engage the same band being bent in opposite directions, the recesses of said sprocketwheels accommodating said ears and lugs as they pass around the wheels; and a displayelement at least translucent. removably accommodatedin each of said holders and bearing for display a single letter, character, or blank only, whereby the display-elements unitedly and consecutively present the advertisement, substantially as described.

SAMUEL KORF. 

